Toy Gear
Toy Gear was a motoring programme that was broadcast on ChrizmanUK between 2010 and 2011. The show consisted of an 8-minute (Season 1) or 12-minute (Season 2) magazine format presented by Fudge Golden, Cheeky Chick, Bonzo Snobz, Giraffe Longneck & Sheep Bahr. Format The show consisted of various segments that all involved cars or car-based themes. Some of the segments from both seasons are listed below. *'"Eco Toy"' - A toy is timed around the Tsukuba Circuit in Japan. The time is placed on the Eco Toy lap time board in the hope to be the fastest. *'"Burning Laps"'- Fudge drives a reviewed car to its limit around the Tsukuba Circuit, placing the time on the Burning Laps board. *'The Bargain Board' - Bonzo selects his best bargains of the week and compares used cars. *'The Fudge Racing & Rallying Team' - Fudge presents highlights and coverage of the progress of The Fudge Racing & Rallying Team (Formerly "Speed Racing & Rallying Team"). *'Reviews' - Any presenter will review a car, stating advantages and disadvantages whilst driving around a course. They range from small, slow compacts to big, fast race cars. Other features that were planned for the series but were cut during development include: *'The "Hot Favourites" Wall' which would have seen presenters rank cars between "Hated", "Average" and "Hot Favourite". *'The World's Best...' which would have seen tests of a number of cars in the same category (e.g. sports utility vehicles) and giving them each five-star ratings dependent on how good they were at meeting a predetermined criteria. The Toy Gear Test Track Overview The Toy Gear Test Track is used by the FBS Motoring Show Toy Gear. It is located in Japan, also called the Tsukuba Circuit. It is used to test the cars featured on the programme in the "Burning Laps" segment, as well as cater for the guests in the "Eco Toy" segment. Layout The course has 2 straights and 9 corners, 10 if the extra turn is added, but the extra turn is not used on the show. It is designed to be a simple racing circuit, but Toy Gear has considered it to be a rigorous test for all cars. The course has three small hairpins, as well as a large hairpin towards the end of the circuit. Toy Gear give the corners their own names. The course starts on the small straight. The first corner is Sweepers Corner, due to the fact that many tests in the cars practice laps drove wide around and came off into the dusty gravel, hence the name Sweepers. Corners two and three are joined as a pair and are called Chicane, due to the S Bend style. Corner four is Breakers Corner, due to the fact that heavy breaking is needed on some cars or else they will understeer out and off the track. Corner five is Dunlop Corner, given this name because of the Dunlop Bridge it has at the end of the right angle. Corner six is called The Triangle because of the triangular junction adjacent to it. The following corner is Cruise Corner (Better known as 48 State), named because of the speed of the car being 48 miles per hour when passing through. Corner eight is Doubleback Bend, due to the fact that it is almost identical to the first corner. The main straight follows, with the car reaching maximum speed here. The final corner before the finish is the long hairpin called Sliders Corner, named because of the powerslides that can be achieved when passing through it. Car Of The Year At the end of every year, Toy Gear announced their car of the year: *2010 - Bughatti Veyron Supersports *2011 - Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Toy Gear Rally Report See Toy Gear Rally Report Toy Gear Rally Report was a spin off from Toy Gear that broadcast in 2011. It consisted of a 5-minute segment in which a race between two rally cars was shown. It was presented by Bonzo Snobz, with either Fudge Golden or Cheeky Chick driving the Toy Gear rally car. Spin-offs In late 2010, a spin-off entitled "Toy Gear GTi" was forwarded. Each episode would have been three minutes in length, with 15 episodes in all, due for release on a weekday timeslot between 27th December 2010 and 14th January 2011. It would have featured Fudge Golden, Bonzo Snobz, Cheeky Chick, Sheep Bahr and Sammy Seal. The format consisted of one single motorsport event or specialist car review per week, headed by just one presenter per episode. It was replaced by Rally Report in 2011. Two segments were filmed, but remain unaired. In early 2011, a Toy Gear special entitled "Toy Gear Extra" would have been broadcast following on from the first season, but was not made. Another special entitled "The Race Is On!" would have aired a few months after, but similarly, nothing came about. Future Toy Gear will most likely never return due to the retirement of main presenter Bonzo Snobz in 2013. Fudge Golden has stated that he is available for a return, but a general lack of interest has meant that the decision to make a new series has not been taken.